Changing the Face of Stride
by Mland22
Summary: Unusual Michi Itsuki arrives at Honen Academy to get away from people discriminating against him at his old school. Joining Stride he makes advancements in parkour and free running he never thought was possible. That is until Riku sees him in the shower. Contains OC & stops Kyosuke from joining the team.
1. Chapter 1

Michi Itsuki looked at the gate for Honen Academy. Swallowing nervously, he stood over the line and onto the campus. It didn't look any different from his past academy except a bit larger but hopefully he could get a fresh start here. A girl crossed his past and ran into the yard just as the gate started to close. She heaved over, taking in deep breaths of air, clearly exhausted from sprinting. Michi would have walked on and into the school had it not been for the massive BANG, that echoed across the campus. Two boys had jumped the gate with one landing perfectly whilst the other had carried with the momentum slamming into a tree in a nearby garden. Michi stifled a giggle and walked into the building whilst the girl ran over to the blonde haired student now under the tree. The other boy, black haired jogged over looking unspent at his friend.

The school was comprised of generic wood and concrete decoration with the floor covered in carpets for class rooms. The campus walls were covered in various flyers and stick-it notes, each one mentioning a club or activity present this year. A few that took Michi's interest; they swimming, cooking and the various of the sports clubs available to freshman years. He continued his path down the walkway and ended at the administration office, which was located at the far side of the ground floor. The stairs nearby indicating that this school had three levels: ground/one followed by two and three.

Inside he met the receptionist who past him a timetable after filling twenty minutes of paper work that included insurance waivers, education costs and other fun adult stuff. Afterwards all he got from the stress was the option of taking a school branded pen or highlighter. Accepting the offering of appeal, he walked out and back to the corridor with a slightly bemused look of aggression. More students had filled the corridors causing them to become slightly packed and claustrophobic. Michi struggled to keep his head above water. Looking at his timetable he discovered his home room, 1C. So... Level 1 and Room C, so it was the same level as administration. Walking to class he saw various students were gossiping in the corridors and whispering. A new flyer had been posted since being in the admin's office detailing an in-school event. The illustration was of a boy with platinum white hair in a mid-air flip. Apparently the Stride club was reforming. Michi looked down at his legs, questioning whether he could do those stunts.  
"You could be a runner," muttered a voice behind him. Suddenly two hands grabbed his right leg and he couldn't decide whether it felt weird or gross. He twisted on the spot to find the boy with black hair from earlier groping his left leg, feeling his skin and muscle.

"Please stop." He inquired, pleading as the guy began stroking his muscles.  
"Your Achilles isn't strained or you'd screamed." He muttered under his breath and began pressing into the veins on the back of his leg.  
"Can you please stop?" The dark haired boy continued to grope his flesh, feeling the texture of his skin.  
"LET GO!" Michi lifted his right foot and kicked outwards, his foot colliding with the boy's chest and, in essence, throwing him into the nearby concrete wall. He crumpled forward more in shock than pain.  
"Sorry," he muttered before running off to class, a group of onlookers muttering behind him.

"My name is Michi Itsuki," Being at the front of the class was nerve wrecking, confirmed the speaker's inner voice. The entire class was staring at him like he was some insect outside of their entomological habitat and needed to be squished. He could almost imagine the class carrying a massive fly swatter. "I look foreword to being accepted into your classroom." The teacher stepped foreword as Michi took his seat on a girl's right, The girl from this morning.  
"Today class we will be –" the door of the classroom swung open letting in the weirdo from earlier, Michi suppress his outburst of fear by bitting his tongue causing his eyes to water in pain.  
"Sorry for being late." The teacher looked at him before pointing to the spare desk behind the girl.  
"Please don't be late again."  
"Yes, miss."

She sighed before turning back to her class. "Okay class, today we will practice English speaking, please open your English texts to page 23 and continue reading with a partner." With a tap on his shoulder, Michi turned to see the girl from earlier, smiling and standing just shy of his desk.  
"Hi, I'm Nana-chan."

"Cool, I'm Michi," he replied before laughing. "But I guess you already knew that." She nodded in approval.  
"Want to be partners?"

"Lennie watched him from over the fire. He said impatiently, 'I like 'em with ketchup.'  
'Well we ain't got any,' George exploded," read Michi adding accents to the American personas. Nana clapped as everyone around her that had overheard his read. The teacher clapped as well before inquiring as to how?  
"My parents were born in Japan but I was born in Southern England. I didn't change countries till seven years ago."

"Wow, that's so cool," commented Nana completely awestruck.  
"Thanks." The bell went for lunch, followed by the morning group of three departing for somewhere. Seeing as he only knew Nana, Michi followed the group out the door and down the corridor, his shoulder bag bouncing against his hip.

He watched the groups run down the oval, laps after laps followed by jumping hurdles. Michi watched as Nana stood on the steps with a tablet device watching the group with a timer in her right. He stood there watching until he felt a tap on his shoulder for the second time today. He turned to find him face to face with a man in formal attire.  
"Hi," he muttered, the dark grey haired man looking him in the eyes.  
"Well this is civilised unlike the last person I caught goggling at the dudes. Wasn't really a boy before." Michi swallowed,  
"I assume you're the head of PE and the representative of this club, which I assume again?" Michi hoped he was right.  
"Yes, ."  
"Can I join?"

Nana put down the tablet to look behind her, wondering what was taking their coach so long. Instead she sound the new student talking to their coach. Was he joining Stride?  
"We ready Relationer?" asked Riku through her ear piece.  
"Sorry, yes." She looked back at her tablet revealing the locations of all her runners.  
"Riku, set." She couldn't see him but she could imagine his legs stretching and getting into position. "3, 2,1, GO!" She watched as the number 2 shifted on her tablet. As usual Riku was making reasonable speed.  
"Takeru, set." She called and focused on the table. Need to time it… Need to time it… She watched at the digial numbers got closer and closer before calling it. "3, 2, 1, GO!"

Michi walked down with the coach to sit next to Nana whom greeted him warmly before calling the next runner off. The coach began the rundown of how the system worked; from relationer to professional rules and finished as the group came to a rest in-front of them.  
"We have a new recruit," began Yyjiro. "Let's begin initiation." Nana stood up in confusion.  
"Initiation?"  
Heath smiled, "Of course, you have to avoid getting tagged by all five of us whilst the relationer advises you around the school campus." Nana looked even more shocked.  
"I never heard of this."  
"Of course not," replied the coach. "We just made it up."  
Michi took a deep breath to calm his nerves before smiling. "Let's do this."

Nana held out an earpiece to which Michi placed in his ear. "I'll allow you to communicate with me and provide me the ability to track you plus the others. Any ideas?" Michi took a deep breath.  
"I need to make one trip around campus and I can't get tagged. I just need you to target the one I can most easily avoid." Nana eyes widened in realisation.  
"In which case it's Ayumu, he's got the slowest speed time."  
"Lets do this. Okay."  
"Michi, Set!" Michi took another deep breath. _I won't fail_ , he told himself. _I will win and I will run_.  
"3, 2, 1, GO!"

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	2. Chapter 2

Michi kicked off from the starting line, the schools track, and began pelting forwards. Unknown to those following he'd once been a parkour artist in England. Kicking up speed, he bolted around the first corner.

"Michi, the first runner is approximately three seconds behind you," Nana advised. Michi quickly scanned the area using his peripheral vision. The bike shelter was just to the right, along with the bike racks. Taking advantage, he turned right and kicked over. His torso remaining upright whilst his legs and waist twisted to accommodate. He could hear the guy behind him grunting from exhausting. Realizing the intent, they were testing endurance, not speed. His ability to maintain his cool, his endurance of both body and soul. His instinct were telling him, his opponent was loosing speed. Nana reaffirmed this over his ear piece. Michi made his first fatal mistake; he turned to look behind himself, slowing down in the process. Heath was smiling intently whilst still being out of breath.  
"Michi! Look out!" He turned his head back around to see a boy in his path, he had short blonde hair and small in stature. He kicked off from the ground bolting for him. Taking a hard turn left, Michi turned just narrowly missing the boy's tag and scooting around the school's first corner.

Nana looked down at her tablet. Whoever this boy was, he was amazing. Not only at English but running as well, he seemed like,  
"a professional…" Nana looked at her Club Advisor who watched her work in admiration, himself intrigued by what was happening.  
"He certainly knows how to navigate sharp corners. He shows great resemblance to the English Parkour Protégé Mellany Warring."  
"You don't suspect they are related?" Her coach looked at the tablet before off into the horizon.  
"I don't know. Apparently she's an only child, maybe he attended her club. That makes him very rich. Her classes were expensive." Nana looked back down at her tablet to see Michi had already finished his first part and was halfway through his next leg unguided. Quickly tapping her ear piece, she began speaking again.

"Michi, prepare to watch out. Runner, four seconds behind and catching fast." In the way were brick walls lining the steps. Leaping he pulled himself up and leapt across to the opposite side, hoping to loose the member following. Without Nana advising him, he'd already been tagged by the weird freak from this morning. Michi shuddered as he remembered the leg pervert. Jumping off the final wall he commando rolled back into a run, breaking his fall and transferring the impact energy over his form.  
"Well done, the two intial runners, Heath and Hozumi are running to the final stretch to help Ayumu. Watch out." Michi could still visualize the stands, the gym equipment was still out. Running around the final corner he walked straight into Ayumu's arm; an ambush. The boy wasn't even running. Two out of five. Still no chance for them to win. He continued running to see the final two blocking the finish line, massive grins on their faces. Grinding to a halt, Michi looked behind him. The boy with the ponytail was attempting to catch up, his posture desperately fighting wind resistance. So that was their plan, block the exit and capture. Smiling, Michi ran to the centre of the field where the climbing equipment ran alongside the track and finish line. Climbing the metal rungs was easy, running across them a synch. Reaching the end, Michi used his forwards momentum to flip off, over the two guys and past the finish line. The ponytail boy crossed shortly after him. Michi collapsed on the ground panting, his chest heaving.

Nana ran over, her twin pony tails streaming behind her. An evident smile on her face.  
"We did it!" She jumped in joy, the boys panting deeply.  
"My god, how do you run so fast?" Riku complained, massaging his own aching legs.  
Michi lifted his head off the ground, "Practice. I studied parkour in England. Never thought I'd be doing it here." Nana looked at her coach before back to him  
"Yeah we guessed." Michi looked at Nana.  
"Sorry?" She tapped her tablet to pull up a video of his parkour moves caught by the school CCTV. She then pulled out the advertising video of a girl.

This girl had long brown hair tried back and tucked into her shirt. She ran across metal beams on a development sight. She dropped between the two using the splits with her legs to descend her fall between two brick walls. After holding it for two seconds she kicked in through a window and ran through towards the opposite side of an empty floor before flipping out a window. The screen was then overlaid by a deodorant can, 'For excessive sweating and professional action.'

Yujiro looked at the screen before looking at Michi.  
"Did you train with her?" Michi looked up at his coach, his face impossible to read.  
"We were close. You could say related." Nana looked in awe as did Takeru. Riku seemed slightly impressed whilst the remaining runners just seemed expended. The coach stood up to address everyone present.  
"Alright, everyone hit the showers and return for tomorrow's practice at 9am." Finished the coach, "I won't give any slack just because it's a weekend."

Michi was glad the showers were individual cubicles. He was even gladder that there were only five units. Insisting on everyone having their first was difficult. They all insisted he go first for winning but ended on convincing them to go. Michi watched them leave before stepping into the shower room and taking the last most cubical from the door.

Undressing he took off his school uniform, and hung it inside his little cubical. First his shirt, vest, pants and underwear before turning on the water system. The first thing he noticed was the red chalk seeping out of his hair. Sighing, he made a mental note to permanently dye it. Taking both hands, Michi rubbed away at his roots dislodging more chalk from his hair, turning the water blood red beneath him.  
"Hey Michi," Nana called as the door to the showers opened. "We're turning off the hot water," Michi grabbed the towel hanging nearby in case, preparing to cover his scars.  
"Sure." He responded as the door closed turning back to his shower, the towel back on it's rung. After another few seconds, he heard the door open again. Towel at the ready, Michi heard footsteps edge closer. Three cubicles away, Michi could see the feet of another boy walking down his way. Two away, the feet faced the cubical they were looking at before moving on. One away, Michi swore his heart would die in fear if the person kept moving. Instead the person entered the second last cubical before walking out of the bathroom.

Wrapping the towel around his lower body, Michi moved out the cubical and into the communal area where the mirrors were. The changing rooms were like a T-junction with the door residing at the base of the T. To the left were shower and the right contained mirrors sinks and additional lockers. This was exclusively Stride club property and evidence of it was sprawled on the walls in the form of graffiti. Michi looked into the mirror, he'd definitely started bulking a bit of muscle lately. The beginnings of abdominals evident on his lower stomach. Sighing he watched as his lower chest rippled. Michi stay stuck in his viewing that he failed to hear the door open and a person walk in.  
"Hey Michi," Michi turned around, bare chest, in shock to see Riku standing behind him, eyes wide in shock and mouth open. Michi immediately turned to grab a shirt and hastily put it on but it was too late. He'd already seen the scars, the lines underneath both pectorals.

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 **Author's Note: Dun Dun DUN! Read & review please.**


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